San Gabriel 10-year-old's bullying video packs punch

SAN GABRIEL - Gerry Orz's welcome to California was not all that he had hoped. Instead of shining under the Hollywood spotlight as he dreamed, he found himself cringing under a bully's fist.

After experiencing bullying first-hand when he moved to San Gabriel from Florida two years ago, the 10-year-old decided to use his passion for film and acting by writing and performing in a movie to raise awareness about bullying in school.

Gerry, a Wilson Elementary School student, said kids at his first school mocked him for being Jewish, having lesbian parents, being too tall and too fat. Gerry said he escaped the problem after a few weeks, when he transferred to Wilson. But he says not everyone is so lucky.

"I was teased, I was pushed to the ground," he said. "I became very antisocial."

Initially, Gerry said, he didn't tell his parents what was going on, but they became concerned when he started acting differently.

"We would ask him what was going on and he would just say, `I fell down,"' his mother Kate Orz said. "He is usually bubbly, but he became really sad."

To illustrate the importance of telling an adult about being bullied, Gerry's film plot has two parts, the first about a child not telling and the second showing the positives of asking for help.

Gerry said he wanted to make the movie for elementary school students specifically to stop the problem at a young age.

"It's like a poisonous plant, so when it is a full-grown plant it's poison, but at the root you can stop it from becoming poisonous," he said.

Gerry has received much attention so far for his movie, speaking last week at the San Gabriel Unified School District board meeting and getting a personal thank-you from state Senator Carol Liu, D-Glendale.

SGUSD Board President Andrew Ammon said one of his and fellow board member John Eccleston's goals since joining the board last year has been to create a district initiative to stop bullying. Ammon said he has asked staff to conduct a survey of current practices in San Gabriel schools.

"We really want the students to take the lead on this because there's only so much you can legislate as far as bullying," he said. "What so impressed me about (Gerry) is he himself said, `I refuse to be a victim,' so his message was one of empowerment."

Eccleston said he thought Gerry's movie would be a good way to combat bullying, "especially when they know it's coming from the mind of a fourth-grader and not being pushed down your throat by some school-board member."

He said even though SGUSD has some good anti-bullying programs going on already, the district still needs to do more.

Gerry - who says his biggest inspiration is talk-show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres - dreams of one day becoming a famous writer, actor and producer.

In addition to spreading his film throughout the country, Gerry planned a national Day of Silence on Dec. 12 to commemorate all those whose voices have been taken away by bullies.

"If this Day of Silence works, then there will not be one more tease or one more punch in the world," he said.